Cowboys have eight picks, but no first-rounders

Note: This is the fifth story in a series of six with a Texas angle on the NFL draft to be held this weekend.

IRVING (AP) - Jerry Jones has a good reason for refusing to say the Dallas Cowboys are rebuilding. They probably haven't hit bottom yet.

As one of only two NFL teams without a first-round pick in this weekend's draft, the Cowboys are already a step behind the competition as they try improving a club that went 5-11 last season.

Actually, make that two steps behind. Dallas also has only two-thirds of its salary cap to spend on actual players in 2001, the rest going to wipe out the debt owed to ex-Cowboys like Troy Aikman and Deion Sanders.

Nonetheless, Dallas' best chance to begin turning itself around is through the draft.

The Cowboys have eight picks, beginning with No. 37, the sixth choice of the second round. Dallas also goes twice in the third round.

The majority of the Cowboys' choices come on Sunday, the second day of the draft, when they pick once in the fifth and sixth rounds and three times in the seventh.

"There's not any position that we wouldn't take if we could get the right guy at the right price," coach Dave Campo said. "So, we're looking at everybody.

"We're certainly going to try to stay with the best available player for the value of the pick. If it falls in something we have a tremendous need for, so be it."

Dallas' first-round pick, seventh overall, belongs to Seattle as part of the trade for Joey Galloway.

The Seahawks got the Cowboys' first-rounder last year, too.

Jones gave up so much because he thought pairing Galloway with Aikman would spark a sagging offense and make Dallas a contender again. Instead, Galloway got hurt in the opener and didn't return. Aikman has retired.

Another deal that looks bad heading into the draft was giving up a fourth-round pick for O.J. Santiago. The tight end didn't catch a pass before being released in November.

The Cowboys have made a long habit of robbing the future for the present, be it through trading draft pick or back-loading contracts. All those bills are coming due now.

That's why the draft is as important as ever. Dallas needs all the cheap, young talent it can get.

Cheap, young talent that can produce is the best kind and the Cowboys haven't been so good at finding those lately.

Dallas has drafted and kept just six starters from its last 40 picks, a span of five drafts. San Diego, with four starters, is the only team that's done worse.

Although the Cowboys need starters and competent backups more than ever, Campo said he'd be willing to take a project player if one slides to them.

"Sometimes you have to take value if there's a guy you think is going to be a great player down the road," he said. "You'd make a mistake to let a great one off the board, regardless of what position he plays."

The Cowboys' extra picks in the third and seventh rounds are compensation for lost free agents.

Tennessee is the other team without a first-round pick. The Titans, who went 13-3 last year and made the Super Bowl the previous season, gave up the 29th overall choice to St. Louis for Kevin Carter.